ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Whole house surge protection

Who is installing whole service "surge" protection for resi, any comments as to effectivness, cost, markup, etc.

Thanks

I have installed them. The Murry ones run around $100. The last one I installed was for an audio guy who was installing a very expensive system in a house, $40,000. I told him $250 he told the customer $350. He gave the $350 to me said I was to cheap. It was on a house I was installing a new service on so the install was not an issue. The Murry one is 2 20 amp single pole breakers so it takes up no room. I try to push them but few are interested in the extra $

I've installed the snap-in 2-pole type, and the
larger ones that include the phone and TV. Some people go for them & some don't. I don't know much about them, but assume that they'll work well for minor surges, but if there's a nearby lightning strike you can still expect damage.

Dave

Both Square D and C-H make a 2-pole surge device. As long as you have space they are a quick install, try to mount as close to the main breaker as possible. Cost is less than $100, and offer a warrantee to cover connected equipment, with some exceptions.

Intermatic offers 3 levels of protection and is quite a bit more money, $700 or so for the hightest level of protection. Contact Pete Lewis @ Intermatic @ 815-675-7039 for help with their products.

I will try to find Intermatics prices and levels of protection and edit this later.

I advised a customer about the Sq. D Multi-Path surge protector, and he asked me about the warranty. I contacted Sq. D, and they told me it only covered up to the amount of the homeowner's deductible on his insurance policy. The customer told me to forget it, he would just let his insurance company cover any losses he may have. You can find the information about it at: www.squared.com/us/squared/corporate_info.nsf/unid/ECA901
then click on more information. Steve..

Buyer beware here, you get what you pay for. TVSS devices are sold for class of service as difined by ANSI, whole house surge protector has no meaning.

And another note on this thread, surge arresters offer no help with lightning.

You need lightning arresters for that.

If you find someone interested in surge protection, try planting the seed on lightning protection as well, this is a profitable market.....


Dnk..

I've sold a few of the cutler hammer 3-way surge suppresors. It's line, cable and phone. It's rated at 960 jules. From speaking with electrical engineers they tell me any surge suppresor has to be at least 900 jules or it's unaffective. There's 3 syles 40ka, 50ka and 70ka.

~Andy

Lets say you have a customer with a 100 or 200 amp service that is concerned about surge protection. The say they want to be protected. Lots of computers and higher end stereo equiptment. What would you suggest for them. I've got a lot of people asking about them and there is so much out there. What about internal spikes how do you protected aganst those.

For point of use/internal surge protection, they make receptacles that have a built in surge protector. They are in the case as a gfi and have a LED on the front. I took one apart out of curiosity and they have really big MOV's in them, larger than a power strip. I usually put these on stereos and computers. I think they are around $25 of the Leviton units. Much cleaner than strips and plug in stuff. BUT, this is only the 2nd tier of protection. You should have something at the meter too, or these get eaten up.

I asked the same question on another forum a while back. Got some good replies from people that do this stuff every day. Not the cheapest stuff, but effective. check it out:
http://www.mikeholt.com/cgi-bin/codeforum/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=000130